Two million confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the European Region

A grim milestone has passed as reported confirmed COVID-19 deaths from countries in the WHO European Region have exceeded 2 million people. While this number is devastating, it represents a fraction of the overall deaths directly and indirectly associated with COVID-19, as WHO’s report on excess mortality during the pandemic has shown.

While case numbers are declining in the Region, they remain far too high. COVID-19 continues to remind us that SARS-CoV-2 is still a killer virus, especially for the unvaccinated and clinically vulnerable.

To commemorate this devastating threshold, WHO is providing powerful testimony from the bereaved.

Safiah Ngah from London, United Kingdom, is just one of those who lost a loved one – in this case her father, a doctor – to COVID-19. “I can't put into words how much losing my dad has affected my life and my family's life,” she said. “It feels like the foundation of our lives has just been ripped apart.”

Together we can exit the acute phase of this pandemic if we take definitive steps on multiple fronts, both now and in the long term. These include protecting the most vulnerable, continuing to monitor the virus and its spread, keeping health systems ready for any developments of the pandemic, and tackling its long-term impacts – including the looming prospect of millions of people with post-COVID condition, or long COVID.